It's Moratorium Time

If there were no election liars on TV for 90 days, it wouldn't solve all of our most vexing problems. But I feel certain it would make things better.  

So after years of resisting the urge, I've made my first meme for Facebook (and social media, in general). It presents a simple question. Please feel free to use the piece.

Peanut Shells, Fish Bones And Politicos

In 2001 I covered the 53rd annual Shad Planking for Richmond.com. That was my only visit to the event. After this one it gradually lost its power to attract a big crowds. Here's what I wrote about the scene 20 years ago, when it was a bipartisan event that was still going strong. 

Peanut Shells, Fish Bones And Politicos 

by F.T. Rea

According to a 53-year-old tradition the Shad Planking, sponsored by the Wakefield Ruritan Club, is held on the third Wednesday of April. The event's roots go back to the early '30s, when only a certain breed of cat was invited. Today it's an open-to-the-public outdoor throwdown featuring ample libation and regional taste treats aplenty. But it is politics, undiluted statewide politics, that draws the crowd each year to the Loblolly pines of Wakefield, Va., the self-proclaimed peanut capital of the world.

Although the scheduled speechmakers are always politicians, 2001 marked a Shad Planking first, in that active gubernatorial candidates were at the top of the speaker's card at the Wakefield Sportsman Club.

Thus, when they weren't perched on the flatbed dais provided for honored guests and speakers between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m., Democrat nominee-in-waiting Mark Warner and his two Republican rivals, Lt. Gov. John Hager and Attorney Gen. Mark Earley, worked the rustic soiree with their campaign-sign-holding entourages at their backs every step of the way. Wherever the trio of hopefuls wandered among the many booths and displays, the same strategy was evident: Every potential photographic vignette had to be filled to the edge of the frame with the team colors. An invisible yet pervasive aspect of the occasion was the unprecedented backdrop of the much-reported budget stalemate that has Gov. Jim Gilmore at odds with legislators of his own party, most notably Sen. John Chichester of Stafford. News of the twists and turnings of the day at the General Assembly session rippled through the crowd of 3,000-plus during the seasonally cool, partially cloudy afternoon.

Sustenance and Sauce

With the price of admission, $14 in advance or $16 at the gate, one could eat and drink to his heart's content. Peanuts in bushel baskets, flavored this way and that, were easy to find. Crab cakes were available at one booth; cups of Jack Daniels were poured from a tailgate setup. Dressed with a squirt of Dr. Nettles' Secret Shad Plank Sauce, the same peppery slather that's brushed onto to the Shad as it's smoked on oak planks, deep-fried shad roe whetted the tongue perfectly for a taste of cold beer. Open taps on beer trucks were provided by the campaigns of several candidates. For what it's worth, Forbes offered the Coors line, Kilgore made his statement with Miller brands, and Hager, Warner and Diamondstein chose Bud. In a contrast of styles, the Earley booth offered hot coffee.

Candidate Warner, the Northern Virginia venture capitalist, also provided the party with a portion of its musical fare: the Blue Grass Brothers, featuring on vocals former congressman Ben Jones, who may be best known for his television work as Cooter on "The Dukes of Hazzard."

Between tunes, one of which was a semi-rousing campaign song for Warner, Jones japed that he was an "independent Democrat." Then, with the timing of a seasoned pro, the country crooner claimed former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, of Georgia, liked to say "I was as independent as a hog on ice."

About 2:45 p.m., the event's staff, more than 200 volunteers participated in some way, began to dole out plates of smoked shad, fried trout, coleslaw and corn muffins to the long lines of party-goers.

Politics in the Air 

As he autographed a souvenir Shad Planking baseball cap for an admirer, John Hager mentioned he'd missed only two Shad Plankings in the last 22 years. From my vantage point, of the three men seeking to occupy the Governor's Mansion, Hager seemed the most at ease with the opportunity to chat off-the-cuff in a social setting.

Asked for his opinion on the imbroglio over tax-cut percentage points, Mark Warner was eager to offer some advice, "You don't negotiate with press releases. Everybody's got these intractable positions, and nobody can budge."

On the now-familiar 55 percent vs. 70 percent topic, Mark Earley said, "I think a lot of them [Democrats] don't want a budget because they want an issue for this fall."

However, it was U.S. Sen. George Allen who had the most interesting comment on the subject. As he dealt with my question, "How can the eventual GOP gubernatorial candidate turn the negatives of the car tax phase-out problem into a plus for him in the fall campaign?" Allen seemed to open the door to the notion that the time is nigh for Gilmore to find a way to cut a deal.

"I'm not the one negotiating and drawing lines in the sand, and all of that," Allen said, boot-scooting through the minefield carefully.

"In your mind, could there be a number other than 70 percent?" I pressed.

"There are ways it can be finessed, if people will negotiate in good faith with one another," he replied good-naturedly.

As the Shadows Lengthened
 
By 6 p.m., more than half of the attendees had had their fill and made their way to the parking area. Since I bailed out about that time, I can't say when the last of the diehards left the party.

However, it's not every day that one can have one-on-one conversations with so many active candidates, office-holders and operatives of both major parties. Also at the gathering were U.S. Sen. John Warner, former-Gov. Gerald Baliles, former-U.S. Sen. Paul Trible, Richmond Mayor Tim Kaine, and many other current and former elected officials.

I can't help but think it would be a better world if there were more happenings like the Shad Planking, where politicians of all stripes are so accessible. 

Bottom Line: In spite of the considerable difficulty of negotiating one's way around the countless tiny bones in a shad, I have to give the affair itself an enthusiastic two thumbs up. George Allen will be the speaker for the 54th Shad Planking.

 

-- 30 --

La Marseillaise scene in "Casablanca" (1943)

  

Happy Bastille Day (July 14, 1789).

Pickled History

When people complain about "erasing history," to do with taking down Richmond's Confederate memorials, what do they mean? When they talk about wanting Virginia history to be taught today as it used to be taught in the Commonwealth during the so-called "good ol' days," are they talking about the teaching of truth or propaganda?

Most of my life has been spent living in Richmond's Fan District, which was home to four statues on pedestals honoring heroes of the Confederacy; three of them were removed last summer. Beyond monuments, to know what it was like in Richmond in the past, we look to history, which comes to us in many ways — stories told, popular culture and schooling among them. 

Speaking of history, now I’d like to better understand the slave market business that once thrived in my home town. Moreover, I’d also like to learn more about how that particular aspect of local history was rather effectively covered up for so long. 

Accordingly, it's time to shine a revealing new light on how our history books were cooked in the 20th century. A fresh and thorough look needs to be taken at how the truth was systematically processed into bullshit. 

For instance, in 1961, my seventh-grade history book, which was used in all of Virginia's public schools, had this to say at the end of Chapter 29:

Life among the Negroes of Virginia in slavery times was generally happy. The Negroes went about in a cheerful manner making a living for themselves and for those whom they worked. They were not so unhappy as some Northerners thought they were, nor were they so happy as some Southerners claimed. The Negroes had their problems and their troubles. But they were not worried by the furious arguments going on between Northerners and Southerners over what should be done with them. In fact, they paid little attention to those arguments.

Well, in 1961, I had no reason to question that paragraph’s veracity. Baseball was my No. 1 concern in those days. Now, of course, those words of pickled history read quite differently than they did 60 years ago. 

Living through the struggles of the Civil Rights Era, with its bombings, assassinations, marches, sit-ins, boycotts and school-closings, did much to open my mind, to do with truth and fairness about racism. However, for me, there was no moment of epiphany, no sudden awareness I was growing up in a part of the world that officially denied aspects of its past. More than anything else, it took time. Life experience taught me to look more deeply into things. To look beyond the Lost Cause stories of denial I had been spoon-fed.

Now I know that old history book, crafted in the early-1950s by "historians" hired and directed by the General Assembly, was an essential cog in the machinery that maintained the Jim Crow Era. And since that seventh grade history book was used for a long time, that made sure yet another generation of Virginians was subjected to what was a traditional, systematic torturing of the truth about the institution of slavery, causes of the Civil War, its aftermath, etc. My generation.

Richmond's school children today deserve better than their parents and grandparents got. Thus, it’s our civic duty today to do the right thing in our time. In 2021, let's do our best to  put truth on a pedestal.

Focus on the Two Bombs

The big problem with passionately denouncing the Big Lie is this: it calls for the denouncer to explain that vague term by reciting a list of dishonest deeds that have to do with the election, its aftermath and the January 6th insurrection riot perpetrated by Trumpists (and their various allies). So that angle isn't as effective as it should be, because there are so many lies, so many outrages to be mentioned, that it has the effect of diffusing the attack on the so-called "big lie."

 

Which eventually can make the person reciting the dirty deeds list sound like just another Trump-hater. What Democrats need to do at this point is simplify their attack. And, then all do it every chance they get. 

 

First, boil it down to one deadly sin that no one can defend -- the bombs. It's pretty damn hard to sell the notion that bombers are "tourists."

 

Thus, from here on, Democrats need to start every media interview by asking the same questions about the mystery surrounding those two bombs. Then asking why Republicans appear to want to cover up the truth about those bombs planted in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Why block an investigation? 

 

So, instead of rambling on about a thousand Trump lies, then Trump's terrible incompetence, then his connections with fascist groups, and so forth, it should go like this: 

• Who are the people that built and planted the two January 6th pipe bombs in D.C.? 
• Who else participated in that particular plot? 
• What other criminal acts did that same group commit on January 6th? 
• Why don't Republicans in Congress want the honest answers to those questions?

Those essential questions on bullet points above should be asked by elected Democrats every time a microphone is put before them by the press. Yes, before they answer questions on any other topics, that set of questions should be repeated. Every time. Then go on to other topics.

Every time.

 

“La Jetée” (1962)

 

“La Jetée” (1962): B&W. 28 minutes. Directed by Chris Marker. Cast: Davos Hanich, Hélène Chatelain, Jen Négroni. Note: A stunning example of how less can be way more. This short New Wave classic is about memory, imagination, longing and time. It is an unforgettable film.

Click on the link above to watch it at YouTube.